CAIRO

Small 4to, [vi] + 135 pp. Frontispiece and three plates, with illustrations and cartouches in text. Internally tight and sound, on aged paper, in worn and stained brown-cloth half-binding, decorative endpapers, sprung hinges. Number 43 of 400 copies. Scarce: no copy in the British Library, and the only copy on COPAC at the University of London SOAS.

Thirty-six works by Cooke are listed between 1790 and 1843. The present item, along with its companion piece ‘Carte de la basse Egypte: dressée d'après les observations astronomiques de C. Nouet, et les reconnaissances des ingénieurs et officiers employés à l'Armée d'Orient’, appeared in ‘Planches du Voyage dans la Basse et la haute Egypte, par Vivant Denon’, published in Paris by P. Didot in 1802. Both have the engraved signature ‘John Cooke, sc, 50 Howland St.’ The dimensions of the map are approximately 31.5 x 23.5 cm.

See the entries on the two men in the Oxford DNB. Above the half-title, in a large untidy hand Picton has made the ownership signature ‘Lieutenant General Sir Th Picton’, and there is the same signature by him in a much smaller hand above the illustration at the head of p.1. Facing the half-title, on the reverse of the front free endpaper, is the elaborate armorial bookplate of ‘Field Marshal Viscount Wolseley / of Wolseley County of Stafford / Baron Wolseley of Cairo’.

The material is loosely inserted in a copy of 'Passionate Nomad. The Life of Freya Stark' by Jane Fletcher Geniesse (New York: Random House, 1999). xxvi + 402 + [2]pp., 8vo. Very good, in like price-clipped dustwrapper, and inscribed to Drower by her daughter. Drower is described on p.296 as 'daughter of Freya's old Baghdad friend Lady Drower, [who] followed Pam Hore-Ruthven as her assistant and spent two years trying to get repaid for the cost, not to mention the enormous effort, of packing up Freya's belongings and sending them to Asolo after the war'.

[1] + 26pp., foolscap 8vo. On twenty-seven leaves held together with a brass stud. In good condition, on aged and worn paper. The covering page is headed with the embossed government letterhead (lion and unicorn in oval) and has the words 'Mediterannean Tour | January, 1946' in the centre, with the signature 'Alec Clifton-Taylor' in blue ink in the bottom right-hand corner. The twenty-six pages of text, carrying a few minor autograph corrections by Clifton-Taylor, are headed with the full title.

The Encylopaedia Britannica gives the background to these items: 'The Neo-Destour was formed in 1934 by discontented young members of the more conservative Destour. After a bitter struggle with the parent organization, it became the predominant party under the leadership of Habib Bourguiba in 1937. It was harassed by French authorities throughout the 1940s and began an armed rebellion in 1953 that led to Tunisian independence in 1956. | A Neo-Destour government was then formed. In 1958 Bourguiba was appointed the first premier of Tunisia, and in 1959 he was overwhelmingly voted president.

All three are air mail letter cards. Each with 'Field Post Office' postmark and censor's stamp. The three in fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Letter One: To his father, 17 March [1944]. Addressed to 'My dear Father', with the envelope addressed to 'Sir E. de la Rue Bart. | The Sol | Cookham | Berkshire | England.' 1p, 4to, and 1p., 12mo. A light-hearted letter, in which he jokes about his father's inability to read the word 'Aviv' ('I suppose a series of "i"s and "v"s is rather difficult even if printed') and find the place on the map ('it is much larger than Bournemouth').

Small 4to, [vi] + 135 pp. Frontispiece and three plates, with illustrations and cartouches in text. Internally tight and sound, on aged paper, in worn and stained brown-cloth half-binding, decorative endpapers, sprung hinges. Number 43 of 400 copies. Scarce: no copy in the British Library, and the only copy on COPAC at the University of London SOAS.

On piece of watermarked laid paper 12.5 x 13.5 cm. In fair condition: lightly-aged and creased. Clearly in response to a request for an autograph. Firmly written, with the signature 5.5 cm long. Reads 'A. N. Roussoff | Cairo 1892'. Roussoff famously wagered that he could produce a dozen pastels indistinguishable from those of Whistler. He lost the bet, and was 'obliged to take a course of mud baths after his defeat'.